In sales, you are only as good as your last deal. Every day, week, month, or quarter is a fresh start where, once again, your team needs to gear up and deliver. Great sales leaders are able to push or pull a team whether they are at 120% or at…...
5 Ways to Measure the Performance of a Sales Manager
This article provides specific and practical techniques for measuring the performance of your company’s sales managers. Perhaps no position in the sales organization has less accountability than the sales manager position—in part because many companies don’t know how to measure sales manager performance. For example, the primary (and sometimes only)…...
How to Manage and Motivate Your Remote Sales Team
It seems like just yesterday we were living our day-to-day lives - commuting to work, having lunches at a nearby restaurant, hanging out with our colleagues after hours. Yet, it’s already been half a year since most of us have been to an office (or any other place other than…...
Five Simple Strategies for Motivating Your Sales Team
Everyone has a set of factors that influence their performance at work—some of these factors are work related, but many are not. The same goes for motivation; what motivates one employee might discourage another. Many managers gravitate towards complicated reward systems, accountability strategies, or other similar tactics that promise to…...
How to Become a Sales Manager
Advancing from a sales representative into a sales manager role requires polishing your skills and presenting your best leadership qualities. When learning how to become a sales manager, there are several important steps to consider. These include: Aligning with required credentials Being a leader and team player Knowing how to…...
The 5 Biggest Mistakes New Sales Managers Make
This article describes the 5 biggest mistakes that new sales managers make, and how to avoid them. When new sales managers were peak-performing salespeople they mastered the science of selling. But once they become a new sales manager, they often find themselves working harder but not seeing a commensurate impact…...
Types of Sales Managers: Which is Right for You?
If you’re leading a large sales organization, you’ll have several types of sales managers working for you. Your product line sales manager oversees how well a specific brand is doing and usually tracks advertising, profit and feature changes. Your field sales managers recruit, train and develop the reps that they…...
How Much Do You Know About Sales Hiring? Three Steps to Hiring A-Players for Your Business
If you’re looking to add a top sales performer to your team that has the skills, knowledge, leadership, drive, values, and forward-thinking to help take your business to the next level, there are measures you can take to make sure you avoid common hiring pitfalls. Believe it or not, interviewing and hiring,…...
5 Successful Sales Team Management Strategies That Boost Representative Performance
Sales team managers need to implement a number of strategies to boost the performance of their representatives. With a number of other business aspects to consistently monitor, deploying the top sales team management strategies can seem difficult. However, practicing the best strategies improves your employee morale, drives better results, and…...
My manager doesn’t do anything. Is it an issue?
The other day I was talking to a friend who had changed jobs at the beginning of the year and he came to tell me about his disappointment with his job and his manager in particular. At first it didn’t surprise me too much and I blamed it more on…...
Great Sales Managers Answer “Yes!” To These 4 Questions
This article provides four questions that you can ask a sales manager to quickly judge if he or she is a great sales manager, or not. If you currently are a sales manager, ask yourself these four questions to assess your own sales management skills and areas for improvement. Do all of…...
How to Teach Empathy for Sales Teams
Can Empathy be taught? Empathy has always been a necessary part of a successful sale. Heck, I believe it’s a necessary part of being human, having happy relationships, being good at your job and leading a full life. Before COVID-19 happened, empathy was taken for granted. Now, however, in the…...
The Definitive Guide to Sales Management
The purpose of a sales manager is to provide their salespeople with everything they need to succeed, including coaching, training, and motivation. The actions of a successful sales manager can include anything from overseeing the onboarding of a new sales team member to firing a salesperson who wasn't ever going to cut…...
How Effective Sales Managers Improve Team Accountability & Performance
Effective sales managers focus on building more team accountability and performance. An accountable sales team is the byproduct of an effective sales manager who holds salespeople accountable for daily behaviors, activities, and results. Effective sales managers improve the team’s sales performance when they commit to consistent coaching and adopt the…...
7 Lessons for Leading Sales Orgs in a Recovering Market
For many sales organizations, it’s been a challenging few months. As Scott Barker, Sales Hacker’s Head of Partnerships, put it in our recent webinar, “Mastering the Transition to Digital Selling”: There aren’t very many jobs where you’re put in an environment where you almost feel guilty for doing your job. This…...
Playing for Keeps: Retaining and Growing High Performers
Jessica Klek is RVP of Enterprise Sales at SalesLoft, the leading sales engagement platform, helping sales organizations to deliver a better sales experience for their customers. I’ve always been intentional with my career. Even though my plan has changed many times, just having a plan gets you where you need to go.…...